Isn’t the real answer here to simply shut down flying altogether? No terrorist threat then!
To avoid bag check fees, travelers are routinely opting to carry on their bags, but the TSA says that the cost is just getting shifted to tax payers, to the tune of $260 million a year. That’s because the more bags that don’t get checked, the more bags the TSA has to inspect by hand at security checkpoints. Now the TSA is looking to get a cut of some of the checked baggage fees the airlines collect.
“My question is, do the taxpayers have to pick up this fee?” said Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano during testimony in Senate Appropriations subcommittee on homeland security. “Or should we be looking at the airlines for some of the profits that they make from these fees to offset the cost the taxpayer?”
The TSA has also been pushing for an increase in the airport security fee travelers currently pay. Currently passengers pay up to a $5 fee each for a one-way ticket
And you know, if they get a piece of the bag check fees, the airlines will just push the cost to travelers in the form of higher fares. The solution is clear: fly naked and bring nothing except for your patriotism.
If the TSA is to kept (which is likely), one way to improve it is to compensate linked to customer satisfaction.
60% Base pay + 40% variable pay where variable pay is linked to both airline and traveler satisfaction surveys. This pay component is common in the high tech sales and marketing field.
I agree that a well functioning society builds infrastructure that enables the society to function. Roads, airways and airwave, defense, interstate things that make the states better.
I also agree that the traveler should pay, directly, a portion of the cost for the security service they use. Maybe 20%.
However, government accounting, being what it is, this will not be a value proposition. The issue is that the value needs to be accounted. We all know that we’ll be charged $50 per item, $100 per person, and they’ll do nothing at all but maybe steal something valuable. They’ll take in billions (?), and may deliver nothing.
If I thought they were realty protecting my life, I’d fork over some cash, anyone would. But no one but the sheep think they are doing a damn thing besides standing there and looking ugly.
What did we do before the airlines?
It seems like we are going to find out again.
In the beginning air travel was very expensive.
So it shall be again.
You can quote me.
There should be two forms of airtravel.
One for the paranoid who need to feel safe, and the other for the non-paranoid who are not worried about their safety.
“That’s because the more bags that don’t get checked, the more bags the TSA has to inspect by hand at security checkpoints.”
Fixed: “That’s because the more bags that don’t get checked, the fewer bags the TSA has to steal from.”
Air travel contributes to global warming, therefore it will be banned for all but the wealthiest.
This is a classic case of adding insult to injury.
History has been made. I almost never agree with anything Bobbo says, but in this case it’s spot on: the users of the service need to bear the brunt of the costs. ‘Pay as you go’ is the Conservative way.
I don’t fly as much as I used to, but I may start flying more in the future, and I dread it. I used to look forward to flying, telling my employers ‘You Buy, I’ll Fly’. Now I have to pay for an extra bag, pay if my one bag is over 50 pounds, pay for the micro lunch if I don’t brown bag it, even pay for a pillow, blanket or headphones on some airlines. I already have to get the equivalent of a chest X-ray or submit to getting my junk groped.
The airlines haven’t been getting it for a while. They relish all these extra little fees they charge the flying public, but keeping track of them for all the various entities is becoming a nightmare.
I just want to pay one price, and not be bombarded with a 10-page detailed line item report of all the fucking fees that are being tacked on. It contributes to the feeling that I’m getting ripped off. I was looking at renting a car the other day, it was $15.95/day. But then you have the airport concession fee, the licence tag recovery fee, state, county, city and special car rental taxes, and a couple others, pushing the price to about double. I put the kibosh on the whole trip because renting the car was almost as much as the plane ticket. That is lost revenue for the airline, the car rental company, the taxing authorities, not to mention whatever dining establishments I would have visited.
The whole travel industry as well as the TSA need to wake up and realize that they’re going in the toilet because they are making it more convenient for people to drive themselves rather than take a plane.
#15–Animby–its a question of emphasis/analysis/degree and I won’t quibble. I’ve posted I am happy to pay school tax even though I have no kiddies in school: I benefited from school and I’m happy to play it forward. Prison is different as we all benefit keeping the bad guys away but I will not we jail too many people for too little offenses. Is it 80% of the population for drug offenses which shouldn’t even be against the law? But our overlords have spoken.
And if you think air travel is so closely connected to the general welfare that it is unfair to tax the individuals who directly benefit from it then I say let DEMOCRACY rule and I will submit to the majority will, wrong headed as you are.
Interestingly, the same issue is current with the mandate to buy health insurance. I think it violates the constitution, the commerce clause cannot mandate people to engage in commerce even though not buying insurance does affect the commerce of that activity. conversely, a tax paid by everyone to cover services to everyone would be constitutional.
I think thats interesting, yes, I do.
Lets see–whole lot of turmoil when Obamacare gets gutted by the Supremes. We will have to suffer the stupidity of the PUKES for another 20 years before universal healthcare is won==unless we the people go Wisconsin on DC.
Wont happen. Too much fuzzy thinking.
#28 Winnie / #29 Bobby :
I think our main disagreement is who is receiving the service/benefit. Do you tip a mugger? I am not benefiting. I know there is just as good a chance the plane will be bombed out of the sky as there was pre-911. The hardened cockpit doors pretty much eliminates the though of flying into the Chrysler Building for an unexpected visit. It certainly is not a service to me to yelled at, forced to undress, radiated, harassed, groped and sneered at by high school dropouts busily pawing through my belongings. They should have a tip box at the exit for that kind of service.
I’m sorry. I still say it is the United States of America that is benefiting from this service and it is the USA that should pay for it.
Bobbo – let democracy rule? Poop. As you yourself have pointed out on this board, we don’t live in a democracy. I think the gubbmint is going to keep getting more and more fascist until finally we do all go Wisconsin. Let’s face it, Dems or Reps don’t matter. The main function of gubbmint is to grab more and more power Constitution be damned!
FWIW, Roberto, I agree with you about health care and prisons. And, WindowsGuy – I understand your frustration with air travel. I travel very frequently – though mostly not in the USA. I anticipate going to the airport like I anticipate a colonoscopy. Yippee…oops!
Bobbo, what’s funny is, I think if Obama had pushed for your plan in the first place, he would have gotten it, especially if he doesn’t pas the stimulus package. It’s a lot easier to spend money if you haven’t already spent $800 billion on top of your predecessor’s $800 billion.
I bought some Delta stock Friday, hoping that they’ll be the first to start charging extra for passenger seat belts. I expect that to be the next big move for the airlines as they continue to explore the limits of what the market will bear. Unfortunately, the TSA will probably seek to tack on an extra seat belt tax as well. It’s hell when government seeks to emulate private enterprise.
The worst part is, I make this prediction only half in jest.
#31–Mike==we’ll never know will we. Does raise for me the notion that Obama doesn’t know how to negotiate “or” he thinks showing good will at the start is the way to get a better deal in the long term–ie, a philosophy that works only in fairy tales. Just how much can the PUKES abuse this country and Obama before he realizes he is in a blood war for his second term? He’s really being quite silly.
but yes, I’d love to be a fly on the wall when the notion of the individual mandate came up. Obama taught constitutional law? Hard to believe. If you are going for a controversial societal change, you don’t want to base it on an iffy constitutional basis when facing a PUKE supreme court.
Makes no sense at all. And thats what I see all around me, everywhere I look: no sense at all. Even AS WE SPEAK the economic consequences of tax breaks for the rich are coming home to roost and yet STILL the PUKES maintain 50% plus/minus of the electorate’s vote.
Silly Hoomans. How do I get off this planet?
If the Homeland Security Secretary believes the Taxpayers are already picking up the baggage checking fees. Then clearly, the TSA’s job is another example of a government subsidy, for the air travel industry. But the media wags seem to act as if rail travel (Amtrak) is the only one being subsidized. And grouses about it. Who do they think foots the bill for all the nation wide air traffic monitoring? I’m sure the airlines pay some taxes. But not the whole cost of this system. So how are their special needs any less onerous of taxpayer funding, than rail travel? And they’re frequently wanting more airports built, rather than raising their rates to slow demand. Again, putting the cost of new airports (or expanded ones) on the taxpayers’ back.
Most jumps in air travel usage, are the results of airline flying incentives. Like the “Frequent Flier” discounts. After 9-11, much of this demand vanished. And so did the call for more airports. But I’ll wager it’ll be back soon. Just as soon as rail travel threaten the industry’s near monopoly, the slightest.
Actually. there once was another reason for an increase in carry-on baggage. Well before the additional baggage fees kicked it. Baggage theft! There was a significant problem with passengers loosing valuables from their checked bags. Quite a black market on cameras and such, placed in them. And this was well before people started packing laptops, PDAs and iPads. So did these baggage theft rings ever get stopped? I never heard of it. Seems the terrorist threat was the only thing the government focused on stopping. And the news has said nothing about any other air travel complication. So it wouldn’t surprise me if passengers are keeping their high-end possessions closest to them. Which can be a tidy bundle of gear, by now. And nothing is being said anymore about the thievery problem, if it still exists. And since we don’t as yet live in Utopia, I’m sure it still does.
Did the TSA Catch any “Terrorists” yet ? Then get rid of the TSA !!!